ways to take care of yourself

I don't usually share much about myself apart from my weekend photos but today I thought this was important to talk about so bear with me...

Life has gotten busy as of late. I began my last year in graduate school and started my internship. While not working, these two activities have taken up a large chunk of my time. When not consumed by school work or internship, I find myself worrying about the next assignment due or thinking about a patient I saw the day before. I realized I need to take care of myself better and find time for self-care.

I thought I would share my experience here because I think this happens to all of us at one time or another. We get consumed with all kinds of responsibilities and forget to take care of our emotional or physical needs.

Yoga has been my release for a couple years now. It is something I look forward to. This past summer I badly sprained my ankle and could not put any weight on that leg for 4 weeks, and 2 months later I am still healing. This still holds me back from doing some of the postures in hot yoga. It caused a lot of frustration over the summer but since I wasn't in school there wasn't any other stress in my life so I dealt with the pain well. About 3 weeks ago while in yoga I pulled the hamstring in my other leg. I was told this could take months to heal. It has made most of the yoga postures incredibly difficult, some even painful. Yoga is my release, but now I have started thinking of it as another stressor. I have become incredibly frustrated with my practice.

Yesterday I interned all day at the hospital and came home physically and mentally exhausted. I had a headache and just wanted to take a long nap. But instead of zoning out in front of the TV or getting into bed, I forced myself to go to hot yoga. Perkin came to class with me and he could see my frustration building as I tried to stretch and perfect each posture. He looked over at me and whispered, "take care of yourself". I needed to hear this. I was fighting my body and letting my ego take over. What I needed to do was let go of expectation, listen to my body and take care of every aspect of me. Within 10 minutes of doing this my headache went away and my mind cleared. I walked out of the class feeling rejuvenated and worry free. I was reminded again of why I began yoga in the first place and why my self-care is so important.

Self-care doesn't have to be just yoga, it can be a walk around the block or playing with your dog. I have included a link below of some fabulous suggestions for self-care. Whether you have 5 minutes or 2 hours, there are activities to choose to take care of yourself.